UK law firm’s user satisfaction survey indicates Decisiv Search has transformed efficiency levels in just six months

LONDON, 24 August 2010 – Recommind, the leader in predictive information management software, today revealed that Mills & Reeve LLP, one of the UK’s leading full-service law firms, regards its Decisiv Search (formerly known as MindServer Search) solution as the driving force behind the firm’s improved knowledge management capabilities, with an internal user satisfaction survey indicating a drastic increase in the level of staff confidence in the firm’s knowledge systems.

Following on from its 2009 poll prior to the Recommind deployment, in April this year the same group of employees (a mixture of lawyers, business and legal support staff) at Mills & Reeve was asked to reassess – on a scale of one to ten – how useful the document management system, intranet and legal database were now that the Decisiv Search solution is in place and providing sophisticated search capabilities for accessing these content repositories.  Responses illustrated an overwhelming improvement for accessing information across all components of the firm’s knowledge systems – most notably, staff satisfaction with the intranet increased more than three-fold from just a 15 percent satisfaction level in 2009 to almost two thirds (64 percent) in 2010.  In addition, employee opinion of searching the firm’s legal database soared from less than a quarter (21 percent) to 74 percent.  Almost three quarters of staff (74 percent) also praised the improved access to information within the document management system, compared to less than half (46 percent) in 2009.  In 2010, some users awarded the Decisiv Search solution full marks, with one lawyer commenting that the new system is “light years ahead of what we had previously”.

“Conducting a user satisfaction survey such as this, enables us to see just how effective the transformation of our knowledge management capabilities have been since the Recommind deployment,” said Karen Morton, knowledge manager for Mills & Reeve.  “Not only has Decisiv Search enhanced our system on a technical level, it has the potential to improve the efficiency of all our employees, enabling them to find and retrieve documents in seconds, rather than days in some cases, freeing up valuable time to focus on more strategic areas of their work.” 

Deployed across six offices in the UK, Decisiv Search has enabled each member of staff to quickly access information from both internal sources – such as Mills & Reeve’s intranet – as well as seamlessly integrating with its existing data repositories, including its Autonomy iManage document management system, Tikit Firmware practice management system, Lexis Nexis InterAction CRM database, Softlink library catalogue and the firm’s websites and extranets as well as the external PLC (Practical Law Company) knowledge service.

Furthermore, with Decisiv’s Matters & Expertise module, Mills & Reeve has helped its staff to easily locate colleagues with the most relevant answers and knowledge of any query by sourcing experts – from language connoisseurs to topic specialists – and displaying them within the search results, offering relevant access to the firm’s entire staff. 

“With the added value of tools like Matters & Expertise, our employees now have the opportunity to draw upon the experience of their colleagues without leaving their work station or losing precious minutes hunting down resources,” continued Morton.

“Seeing how much our technology has already impacted Mills & Reeve’s bottom line is extremely rewarding, but to hear such an esteemed level of praise from the firm’s employees is priceless feedback,” said Simon Price, European director at Recommind.  “With such complex knowledge management implementations, it is crucial to deploy them correctly from day one to ensure maximum value and user adoption.  Mills & Reeve recognised this fact and have since strived to ensure all areas of the practice are aware of the search tools at their disposal and are making full use of them.”

About Mills & Reeve LLP
Mills & Reeve is a top 50 national law firm with 92 partners and a total staff of 800, operating from offices in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London, Manchester and Norwich. Mills & Reeve is a full service firm with practice specialisms including corporate and commercial, banking and finance, technology, insurance, real estate, healthcare, local authorities, education and private client. For more information visit www.mills-reeve.com.